The Dark Hero Adventures

The Mark of Temptation, part 9

The hills rose to meet the peaks, the prominence of their long curves reminiscent of the waves of the sea. The mountains towered above them like gigantic successive tiers, until they blocked the horizon with their jagged mass.

Elysia had feared that she would have difficulty locating the path to Silver Peak Mountain, but she was clearly visible. It was a simple detour from the one she and Frey had followed the day before, when they descended at the bottom of the chain.

She began to feel the strain in her back, thighs, and calves as the trail climbed higher and higher. It had been cut into the side of the mountain by the passage of countless feet, and Elysia wondered if the alchemist had ever traveled that route, or if it was a path left behind by less human feet. Some of the signs carved into the rocks were in the form of crude eyes, but he couldn't tell if they were signs intended to warn the traveler of the presence of goblins in the area, or territorial markings, made by the skins themselves. green.

Apparently, Frey was enjoying the ride, as he awkwardly hummed a song to himself and began the ascent without any apparent effort. He made his way along the slippery path without difficulty, finding footholds where Elysia couldn't see them. A short time later, the catgirl found it easier to follow in Frey's footsteps, since Frey was in an environment she was adapted to and it seemed more prudent to let him lead the charge.

Sweat trickled down the catgirl's back, and her breathing was ragged. She had thought she was hardened from her long journey back, but the effort of climbing that hill was painful. The beating she had received and the alchemist's treatment had worn her out, and she was worried about her ability to make it all the way to the top, which would be even worse if the clouds decided to make good on her threat of rain.

Although the benefits conferred by her armor were remarkable, Elysia's physical ability was limited, and she still hadn't recovered from her injuries. She was sure, if it weren't for the bonuses granted by the armor, she would have fallen to the ground long ago unable to continue walking.

The ruggedness of the landscape, filled with rocky outcroppings and windswept land, matched her stormy mood. Elysia burned with hatred for Wolf Ladmer, she detested the easy cruelty of the wealthy merchant's son and his spoiled-child arrogance. When she was still a slave, she had met a dozen like him, but she had never had to face the situation of being the object of cruelty, since her owner's fortune and social status had protected her from something. similar.

She understood why Greta had been so upset. She tried not to think about what had happened between her and Wolf, but the thoughts that Ladmer had forced himself on the girl kept coming to her mind and driving her half mad with fury. She swore to herself that she would bring healing to Frey and that she would make that brat pay for her vileness. She continued walking as she cursed to herself and fought the urge to yell at Frey to stop the hellish humming.

Frey disappeared across the crest of a rise, and Elysia cursed as her feet slipped on loose pebbles; Luckily, during her fall, she did not hurt her hands with the edges of the sharp rock fragments, because the gauntlets of her armor protected her from her. She crawled to the other side of the ridge and found herself lying on the soft tundra.

She wondered why the mountain sunflower had to grow on the highest slopes, just below the snowfield. Why couldn't it grow at the foot of the mountains like all the other flowers? After a moment, she shrugged because she had never in her life discovered that few things were easy. Perhaps the alchemists used the ingredients they used only because they were hard to come by, just to add to the mystique surrounding her art. She wouldn't have been the least bit surprised if that was the case.

She sat up and took another painkiller to dull the throbbing pain inside her head. This was going to be a long day.

♦ ♦ ♦

Stout evergreens lined the steep slopes of the narrow valley like bristly beard hairs on a giant's heavenward face. To the right, high above, a waterfall formed a series of spectacular leaps over hundred-foot drops, before plunging into a small lake in the center of the valley. Mountains framed the hollow, and Elysia had to crane her neck far back to see the peaks. Looking down the valley was like looking down the sights of a crossbow; the eye focused on the line of gray peaks receding into the distance.

There, the pungent scent of roses mingled with that of honeysuckle and rose hips. The tangled bushes struggled with each other for space, their flowers like the helmets of colorful armies in battle. She wondered if there were any sunflowers around, but then she remembered where Luthor had told her that she should pick the magical ingredient.

Sudden movement caught her eye as the head of a huge moose, almost as tall as a man, emerged from the bushes that overlooked a ledge of rock fifty meters above her. She watched warily from above, as if determining if it was safe to go down to drink water, and Elysia gazed in awe at the powerful curve of her antlers.

As the clouds parted, shafts of sunlight illuminated the hollow, and the chirping of birds reached Catgirl's ears and mingled with the low roar of the waterfall. She bent down to pick up a pineapple, for she liked the feel in her fingers of the scaly roughness of its jagged edges.

For a moment, the beauty of the scene held her in a state of rapture, and even her thoughts of revenge against the merchant's son evaporated. She felt relaxed and at peace, and the pain in her body temporarily vanished. She was glad that she had seen this place, that all the steps of her long journey had led her there, for she knew that she was one of the few people who would see this valley, and the thought of her gave her pleasure. .

The detail of the moose made the scene look like a perfectly composed, painted landscape. However, she then thought that perhaps it was rather strange that a moose was putting a horn to its mouth with a suspiciously human-looking hand, and then she heard a bugle blast that echoed across the valley; before the sound had died away, the certain idea formed in Elysia's brain that she had not seen the head of a moose, but that of a beastman.

She tossed the pineapple in the direction of the lake and, wrapping her crimson cloak around herself against the increasing cold, she hastened to continue climbing after Frey. She looked around her for signs of someone pursuing them, but she didn't detect any, and she couldn't even see the beastman's moose head anywhere.

♦ ♦ ♦

Before long, Elysia knew for sure that they were being followed, for as she turned her eyes to look down the winding path, she saw that they were being chased by a band of mutants. Throughout that afternoon, as Ella and Frey climbed the side of the mountain, the corrupted beings had been gathering behind them. The way back to Frickburg was blocked.

Pausing to let his breathing and heartbeat return to normal, he tried to count the number of pursuers, but it was difficult because the dim light of late afternoon made the creatures blend with the gray of the rock face. .

Since she involved her life with Frey's she knew that she would die somewhere secluded, but she had not imagined that it would be so soon. The situation was too stupid. Frey would never achieve the heroic end he intended. The dark hero was too busy staring blankly into space to notice the danger that lay ahead.

At first, it had been easy to pretend that nothing was happening, that the beast that blew the horn was nothing more than a lone creature, too frightened to charge two well-armed travelers. But as the day wore on, evidence mounted that this was not the case.

When catgirl had seen hoofprints mixed with clawed human feet in the mud around a ford, she'd preferred to think it was an ancient trail, something she didn't need to pay too much attention to. However, she had removed the loop that held the sword in its scabbard.